His Wake Up Call
by Bells of Tomorrow
Summary: JD’s beard: It’s the rotting cherry on top of the worm infested mud pie that makes the situation just too damn much.


**A/N:** _I have no idea where this came from, but here we go – late night randomness for the win._

**Warning:** _Rated for language._

**Disclaimer:** _I own a very large nothing._

**His Wake Up Call**

He watches him through the glass, astonishment painted on every feature of his expression. He watches him flip a table and send the test tubes flying. He watches him walk over the glass as if they weren't shards that could scar. He watches him go for the computer; his next inanimate victim. But he has to stop watching for just a moment, as said piece of machinery comes hurtling in his direction, creating even more havoc as it crashes through his looking glass and shatters the scene before him.

His first instinct is to get angry, until he realizes that he didn't even know he was there.

And besides…there's no room for even one more participant in this hell storm of sudden rage.

He finally steps into the lab, the other still not aware of his presence.

"JD."

It must be the use of his real name that startles him, because the doctor in question whips around to face whoever called, and Perry has to hope beyond hope that the person before him doesn't see his startled intake of breath.

The brunet's usually bright blue eyes are filled with a rage that the older man has never seen there before; not like this. His chest is heaving up and down, and there's a fine coat of sweat on his skin, and Perry's sure that if it wasn't for the adrenaline rush that was undoubtedly coursing through his protégé's body, the individual before him could very easily pass out from the exhaustion of it all.

But through his haze and his astonishment and his all around displeasure over the fact that the situation shouldn't even _be_; there is the horror that is JD's beard. It's the rotting cherry on top of the worm infested mud pie that makes the situation just too damn much; too damn much. Because if finding JD venting in such a way that _he_ would've done; venting so wildly and uncontrollably that was just _so_ not his Newbie – if that wasn't already horrible enough, then there was that damn beard.

It reminded him of the kid's fifth year; when _he_ had decided that shaving could take a back seat. And besides the suddenly raving JD that was already _way _too much like him than he'd ever imagined, he's now sporting that damn beard; causing the older man to feel as though he's staring directly into a mirror.

And God – he wants more than anything to reach across the room and shave it the hell off; because it's torturing him. It's fucking torturing him.

But hell, isn't that what he always wanted? For that overly cheery attitude to leave him? For the kid to grow up and see the world through the bitter haze that was his own point of view?

Isn't this what he always asked for?

No. Not like this. He never meant like this. He never wanted to look at him and see, well, _him._ He'd take a unicorn loving JD over this anger induced one any day.

"_Well!?"_

Dr. Cox startles, suddenly realizing he had yet to follow up on calling for the kid's attention.

"Now, Newbie," he begins softly. So softly, in fact, that the sudden ease in JD's shoulders is visible. "Don't you remember what I said to you when you were an intern?"

For a moment, all they can do is stare at one another, but then Perry's eyes fill with something that few scarcely see, and he speaks. "Don't you understand that…I just barely want to be like me?"

**A/N:** _I called this, "His Wake Up Call," because I think if something like this were to ever happen, Perry would stop getting annoyed over JD's optimistic personality, and he'd stop getting "happy" over times when JD was miserable. (I put happy in quotes, because, as proven in enough episodes, I don't think Perry takes any amount of pleasure when JD is truly in pain) Anyway, I'm sorry for the late night angst, folks. This sort of just demanded to be written, so I just kind of…went with it. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it all the same. Until next time._


End file.
